No. 13 Hawai'i Falls to UC Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara, Calif - The 13th ranked University of Hawai`i men's volleyball team (3-5, 2-3 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) was defeated tonight in five sets, 31-29, 26-30, 30-25, 21-30, 15-13, against UC Santa Barbara (3-6, 2-4 MPSF) at the Robertson Gymnasium. It was the first road match of the season for the Warriors.

Hawai'i had two players in double figure scoring. James Clar led the way for UH with 19 kills. Joshua Walker was second on the team with 18 kills. However, UH was plagued by hitting woes throughout the match and only hit .157 on the night. UH committed 16 service aces and 32 attack errors.
UH came from behind in game one to win 31-29. The Warriors were facing being down one game when UCSB was leading 29-26. The Warriors scored five straight points capped by a Matthew Rawson and Clar block to put UH ahead 30-29. Clar's kill sealed the victory for UH in game one.

The Warriors could not come back in game two. The Gauchos were ahead most of the game and took advantage of UH errors. UH committed seven attack errors and hit a dismal .059 for the entire game. UCSB tied the match 1-1 with a 30-26 win.

UH continued to fall behind early against UCSB. However, three straight kills by Clar brought UH and UCSB to a tie at 25. Wilton switched up his lineup and brought Sean Carney in to setter for game three that helped spark the Warriors. An attack error by UCSB gave UH their first lead of game three, 26-25. A triple block by Brennon Dyer, Steven Grgas and Clar sealed the win for UH at 30-25.

The Gauchos were able to get back to their game two form in game four. UCSB stormed out and never looked back, leading by as much as eight down the stretch. UCSB took game four 30-21.

Both teams did not want to lose any ground in game five. However, UCSB took a lead at 8-7 off a Clar attack error. A service ace and kill by Dyer gave UH hope with the score tied at 11. However, UH could not pull out a win and dropped the game at 15-13.

The Warriors will try to even out their road series with the Gauchos tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. (5:00 p.m. HST)